


Breaking Cards' Conventions (the Bittersweet And Strange remix)

by Chanter



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alliances, Disney references everywhere, Gen, Magic, Mayura redemption, Remix, Wordplay, one beneficial Sentimonster, one seriously nasty akuma, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chanter/pseuds/Chanter
Summary: Miss Scarlet's in the library with M. Green and M. Green, the candlestick isn't quite up for grabs, and the other player in the game is Mlle. Peafowl, thank you.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Breaking Cards' Conventions (the Bittersweet And Strange remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Miss Scarlet, in the Library](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19076224) by [AlexSeanchai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai). 



"If either of you say anything," asserts the empty-handed wielder in the doorway because she is, suddenly, standing squarely in the nearest victim-free exit not either leading to a dead end or occupied by Carapace and a crowd of shielded civilians, though how Ladybug saw her before he did, Chat Noir will never know, "about 'if it's not baroque, don't fix it', I will call off the alliance I'm willing to enter into for the duration of this fight, no matter my timing, and I will not warn you first." Mayura's voice is desert dry, though he's a breath or two from swearing he hears something like humor buried in her cool composure, and her gaze slides from his partner, at her ready agreement, to Chat Noir himself. 

The practicalities of the situation, to say nothing of those subtle hints he's just about, almost, maybe certain he picked up are the dual reasons for his nod. Well. That, and the quoted pun the peafowl-wielder didn't miss, which is a dual (and not a duel, yet, considering she's openly stated she's at least briefly on their side) of another kind, even if she shot it down before its deployment. How can he dislike a reference like that? 

"Alright, then. Hawkmoth has every reason to believe me absent from the situation, and if I'd gotten wind of this particular plan beforehand..." That latter phrase has emotional nuances buried in its layers like ice shards, he's sure of it, and now Mayura's fan is in her hand. It's how visibly deliberate she is about its retrieval that stops Chat Noir lunging across meters of open library floor, consequences and alliances be damned. "Not important. I gather you had an idea I could--" the slightest of pauses "--facilitate?" She's lifting eyebrows just a fraction in his lady's direction, Ladybug's nodding what looks like assent--ack! and then--oh, sweet baby Camembert, just how much context did she have or hear? Chat Noir fails to stifle his chortle. Then a few more like it, composed of little more than adrenaline-flashed relief. 

The creature is all blue-washed metal and as much space as structure, a composition of finger-slender struts, spindles fine as knitting needles, and lines of sequin-delicate clockwork gears that, when taken together, stand as tall as anyone else in the room. "You are Ladybug's," Mayura asserts, only half looking toward the strangely not uncanny latticework that is the sentimonster's face--what should they call it, if it's technically not a monster in this case? Ladybug's own eyes are on the candlestick still gripped in her hand, then on the distinct, vertical slot between the frankly beautiful construct's barely-extant shoulders, the echo of an answer to an antique clock's winding key and keyhole. 

"Mutailor's powers don't take magic into account," she says slowly, and Chat Noir's mind seizes, unbidden, on an image of his partner evicting a reasonably friendly amok from her own lucky charm as well as the akuma from the currently-rogue geneticist's purple-flushed laboratory badge, because the space between that candlestick's spots is blue-chased, now. "But they do only work on organic material. This may be just the distraction we need." To avoid sacrificing one of ourselves out of necessity, she doesn't add. Chat Noir blinks, because Mayura's nodding what looks very like sharp assent of her own - has she seen what Mutailor's microscope beams do to people? Ladybug's already moving. 

"There may be something there that wasn't there before," his lady quips to the room at large, as the twice-charmed key she's holding slides home with a click and turns, clatteringly, clockwise. 

Mayura coughs, singly, and her next breath isn't a huff any more than it's a short sigh. Ladybug doesn't look back - she and her freshly-wound Senti...something are already moving for the doorway, which means the peafowl-wielder's obliged to glide out of it and step to the side - but Chat Noir's smirking all over his face as he follows. 

Once is a possible coincidence, or else Ladybug's luck flattening his own to the floor. Twice is a suspicion. 

Thrice, because the entire giant Cogsworth reference matches (yes, yes) his lady's own Lumière, is a pattern. And wary as he still is of this new, perhaps only momentary ally, that reaction just then? Was not the sound a coincidence makes. 

This might just work.

**Author's Note:**

> This started with a post to the holiday_wishes comm on DW. AlexSeanchai mentioned they'd appreciate fanart of their works, and since that option is well and truly out in my case, I asked about remixes. I got an enthusiastically positive response, went a-sniffing around, and this resulted! I tried for three-sentence fiction at first, but that idea quickly fell on its butt. Not that I mind! 
> 
> Yes, I did go back and watch snippets of a certain 1991 movie for this. I regret zilch. :)


End file.
